I love a homemade Christmas gift, and my good friend (and author) EE Montgomery always spoils the members of our writing group with homemade preserves. This year I scored a jar of lilly pilly jam.

For the overseas readers Lilly Pilly is an australian native tree, commonly cultivated in suburban gardens - it makes a drought resistant hedge, although it doesn't fare so well next to swimming pools, as we discovered in our previous house. Here's some photos of Lilly Pillys growing in our suburb - the first at the local park (I so wanted to prune that to a Christmas tree shape) and the second, from the sidewalk, overhanging the fence.

I saved opening the jam until after Christmas, went down to the local bakers early on Sunday and grabbed a vienna loaf with seeds and cranked out the coffee machine and the toaster.

Mmhhhmmm.. it was great. Tart, sweet, a touch of lemon. Crispy toast, piping hot coffee. It's hard to say that this surpasses last year's cherry jelly, but its definitely the winner so far in the jam steaks. It made me want to start making jam, it was that good. Nothing like the over sweetened commercial varieties from the supermarkets. You could taste the fruit (which I would call tart and crisp).

Tell me, what sort of homemade Christmas delicacies did you make or eat this Christmas?

I'm pretty much a creature of habit and the control centre for my world remains a paper diary and calendar. While I use my electronic diary, I've been caught when travelling between the farm (daylight saving time) and home (eastern standard time). When you cross the border, the phone "adjusts" your appointments by an hour, no matter which settings I tick. I was an hour late for a few things as a result.

So, when my paper diary disappeared in the chaos of renovating, I noticed, but I didn't pay a lot of attention. It had to be here somewhere, I told myself. I only had it the other day, I told myself. I alternated between memorising the calendar and half-heartedly searching for it. As I searched, I came to realise other things were missing in action - my desk keys, my 2012 conference satchel that I take to writing group, notepads - the list went on and on. I became convinced I had accidentally thrown a bag or box out.

I tried not to panic but December bought a whole new challenge. My Christmas Card list, carefully cultivated over many years, was in the diary. All of my key dates relating to Christmas were also in the diary. Without it, I had no plan to work off. Mild panic morphed into desperate searching, and still no diary.

Today, I stopped searching for it, made a best guess list and started working on it. First stop, the storage shed to retrieve dining table chairs for Christmas Day. I was looking for my large platter (also still packed) when I discovered a bag that looked like kitchen gear. Hey presto, the missing diary, bag, keys and about twenty other things I hadn't realised were missing.

How could it be? I hadn't taken anything to the shed since mid year, and I was sure I had the diary in October. Well, actually I didn't. The elastic strap tells me I lost it on 28th July 2014. Right before the tiler arrived.

So, to all my friends and family whose birthday is in August - December, I apologise - I see I missed each and every one of you. Happy belated birthday. To everyone who doesn't have a Christmas Card yet - I'm working on it. To anyone else who had something scheduled with me and I didn't turn up - sorry about that. A quick flip through August and September confirms I may have missed a few things.

Moving forward, in 2015, I've gone for a combo diary/notebook from Personal Planners . I'm really happy with the result, and I've promised this diary I will keep it safe. No matter what.

Well, the festive season is upon us, and it snuck up a tad faster than I was expecting. You see, we moved house in 2014 and I fully expected us to be fully moved in by the time Christmas rolled around.

I was wrong.

A quick trip to the storage shed unearthed our Christmas cards and wrapping paper, and this miniature quilt that I made a couple of years ago. It normally hangs in our foyer, but this year it is stepping up and being "The Tree". With a mischievious puppy in the house, we decided not to tempt fate by having a traditional tree so without further ado, I give you our tree. It's lying flat on a side table and we're piling the presents around it. The new house has no wall hooks to hang it from (adds another job to the 2015 task list).

For the quilters among you, its a cut down of a 3 inch square pattern from a magazine called Down Under Quilts - each of my squares is 1cm. I had a heap of Christmas toned fabric leftover from making a Christmas tree skirt, and this is the result. Anyone thinking of working with 1cm squares - you need a steady hand, a small stitch size and the patience of a saint. It was a great challenge.

Before I go and rejoin the frantic Christmas rush, I wanted to give a big shout out to everyone who has bought a copy of Home for Christmas, or left a review. I appreciate each and every one of you. I love how Tate and Layla have resonated with the readers and a big shout out to my northern hemisphere readers, who are going to shiver through Christmas. We are sweltering today, and expecting a thunderstorm.

Hope your holiday preparation is going well.

Fiona Greene Author

"A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step." Join me as I travel the road to publication and beyond.